Why does my child look five?

August has flown by. Our house is on the market, so that means extra excitement every morning, trying to make sure there isn't wet oatmeal on the wall or a fire truck in the hall. I have a few little videos of nothing much to get on here soon. Meanwhile, enjoy these photos of Shepard I took on Tuesday. He looks sooooo grown up (and handsome, if I do say so myself). Every year we "help" Daddy with his school bulletin board, so these were for some posters that will go up in Daddy's room.

Sweet smile. Sweet boy.

He's got the whole world in his hands...and a few bruises and knee scrapes.

Who's that cute guy on the screen?

Here's a flashback from bulletin board 2010...sigh.

And one more from 2010...

The boy wonder.

:) We are getting to the really fun age when Shepard starts identifying stuff, making animal sounds, etc. I was able to capture our "body parts quiz" earlier today...

Running, climbing, and exploring

Shepard loves to explore these days. Anywhere you set him down, he is bound to find out all about it. He is getting so good at running...everywhere! He loves to climb and enjoys the great outdoors. Here are a few pictures that capture his adventurous spirit in Grandma Jones' backyard...

Toddler-hood

On Saturday, we had a major clean-up day. You know, the kind where the washer is spinning, the mirrors all get clean, and dust bunnies quiver in fear? That kind. I'm not 100% sure Shepard was keen on joining in to help CLEAN, but he surely did enjoy the dry swiffer. (try not to get distracted by these super-cute monkey jammers)

 He played with the thing for at least an hour. I finally had to trick him onto the diaper-changing table and leave it in the hallway for Daddy to fetch while the attention was diverted. He tried to swiffer pretty much everything in the house.

Of course, we'd love for him to learn to be helpful! Hopefully, he will model so many of the wonderful things his Daddy does around the house. Like swiffering!
In addition to this fine turn of events, he has been learning lots of new words and sounds. Seemingly something new almost every day. This week, we got "night-night," the RAWR of the lion, "fish," and MEE-MO (his way of saying Nemo when we show him our clownfish), and "cracker." He also does a terribly cute thing whenever he finds a phone or something like a phone. He holds it up to his ear and makes a funny sound like "hemmmmmmm." Not sure who he's emulating there.
This morning, as we left for the day, I pulled out the big golf umbrella to shield us from the rain. You would have thought I have given him his very own traveling circus tent. His little eyes lit up and he smiled and looked at me with that great curious stare, as if to say, "Mommy! What just happened!? Don't ever let it end."

Hooray for PLAY!

Shepard (in yellow) hanging with some buddies.

Shepard's walking skills are getting better and better. It's definitely his go-to mode of transportation these days. Sometimes, he just likes to pick things up and then walk around with them...up and down the hall...over to the gate at the kitchen...

So on Saturday when the weather barely threatened to get above 82 degrees and it was slightly overcast (hoooray! in July!!), I knew I was taking the tyke to the park. I threw on some clothes and put on Shepard's cool new shoes and off we went. We did the baby swing and slide. There was another June baby there checking out the tot lot as well. Shepard was able to walk around the play area in the mulch and enjoy the slides (with some help) and the steering wheel and play areas. It was so much fun to see him just PLAY outside and discover all the fun gizmos in the playground. He even climbed up the slide a few times nearly on his own. Daddy and Mommy had lots of fun helping him navigate everything...including a big hippo he could crawl into!


Shepard (left) really liked the steering wheel thing!
Here he is with Cooper, the birthday boy. (also TWO)

Saturday evening our friends hosted a birthday party for their two-year-old, Cooper, at Chick-fil-A. I wasn't sure if Shepard would be able to enjoy the restaurant's play area and/or hang with the older kids, but there was definitely some stuff there for him! Not only was it his first "buddy's" birthday party, it was also his first time in the play area. I know he plays with some of the same kids in church nursery and he has school buddies, but it was fun to be able to observe him in this environment for sure. Cooper's mom, Michelle, got some pics at the party. You can't see his face, but he was delighted. I decided to just enjoy the moments and not be consumed with documenting every second on "film." (and for the record, children of the 20th century, how bizarre is it to think about film as just a thing of the past now??) We had loads of fun with fellow small group members and friends and lots of boys...and sweet Sophie, the lone girl.

Small group friends Paul, Michelle, and Birthday Boy Cooper. Happy Birthday, Cooper!




Shepard (left) and Hudson (two) check out the fishy steering wheel. Shepard obviously liked that!

 

Sweet Sophie can hang with the boys!



Curiosity

I may as well make "curiosity" its own category. I have a feeling that we'll have more than a few posts about it in the years to come. On his third day in his new class, Shepard tried to make a break for it. I think they're very nice to him in there, but his room opens up into the gym. And there were lots of cute older kids in that gym playing with balls and cars and wagons...so the little yellow wall that they put up as a barricade was more of a dare for him. He made it over. I guess they caught him before he got too far. But now the problem is he knows he can make it over. The center had to make several modifications to his last classroom because he got into things that other kids had not been interested in before (he stayed in there longer than average, so they weren't used to curious 10-month-olds). I'm guessing there might have to be a new, taller yellow wall soon. Have I mentioned that he can already reach the doorknobs? I'm pretty sure I saw him with his hand ON the doorknob yesterday. After hearing a story about a new friend's 2.5 year old getting out of the house with truck keys, starting the truck and driving it into a tree, I'm a little nervous. In his defense, he told her he was going to "go drive" and proceeded to the garage...but he has his own toy car in there. Why would she think he meant the TRUCK!? I see chain locks in our near future.

On baby tricks news, Shepard started standing on his own this morning. Just right in the middle of the floor, then standing right up without pulling up on anything. He's still just taking a few steps at a time, and I will document that on video this weekend. Lord willin' and the creek don't rise...

Here's some cutie pics from last week.